Thin polished plates such as silicon wafers and the like are a very important part of modern technology. A wafer, for instance, may refer to a thin slice of semiconductor material used in the fabrication of integrated circuits and other devices.
Wafers are subject to inspections, and semiconductor metrology tools can be used to measure certain structural and material characteristics of the wafers at various stages during the fabrication process. These measurements may be used to facilitate process/quality controls and to improve the efficiencies of the fabrication process. It is noted, however, that some of the existing methods for measuring structural and material characteristics of the wafers are inefficient.